Chapter 41
The trio of Garrus, Tali, and Shepard headed off towards a break in the cliff at a light jog. Quickly clambering over a pile of rocks, they spread out into their standard attack formation. Tali opened up her shotgun, Garrus his AR, and Shepard his sniper rifle.
Garrus glanced askance at the commander. "Really, Shepard? Isn't anything we encounter going to be too close for sniping? Based on the scans we saw, these channels don't go straight for more than 50 meters or so."
"Pshaw." Shepard waved the turian's comments away. "No such thing as too close for sniping. One shot from me will kill just about anything that could fit in these here canyons. Can't say the same about your little pea-shooter."
Garrus chuckled at the rejoinder. "I suppose, Commander."
I don't think I will ever understand those two's incessant need to banter before, during, and after firefights. Tali thought to herself, looking back and forth between her two companions. Ancestors! Why do men have to be so complicated?
The three commandos moved forward. Suddenly Kirrahe's voice came over their radios. "Jaeto Lead to Shadow Lead. We will begin our assault in T-minus thirty seconds."
"Shadow Lead to Jaeto Lead. Copy that. Shadow Lead out." Once he finished speaking, Shepard motioned to his two teammates. "Let's go, gang. Weapons cold for now, unless they shoot first."
Within minutes, Shadow Team had arrived at a small base. "Alright gang. We can probably sneak around these goons, but should we?" Shepard asked.
Before either Tali or Garrus could respond, Kirrahe was suddenly back on the radio. "Jaeto Lead to Shadow Lead. Do you copy, Shadow Lead?"
"Shadow Lead to Jaeto Lead. Go ahead, Jaeto Lead." Shepard responded quickly.
"We are encountering heavy resistance. There appear to be at least twice as many enemies as we have previously observed. We are requesting your assistance, Shadow Lead. If you come across any method of reducing the opposing forces, we implore you do so. We understand, however, the mission's priorities. Jaeto Lead out."
"Huh." Shepard pondered for a moment. Could mean Saren's here. God I'd love the chance to blow that bastard up. "Unless I miss my guess, that's salarian for 'I'm in over my head, please save my scrawny ass.' Suggestions?"
Garrus and Tali both grinned, and then Garrus voiced his opinion. "While it would make our jobs easier to ignore Kirrahe's request, I think that in the long run the best thing that we can do is to help keep the salarians alive. The more of them that are still alive, the longer they will continue to force Saren's troops to defend multiple positions. Additionally, the Council will look favorably upon you saving as many salarians as possible." Shepard growled at the mention of the Council, but Garrus shook his head and continued. "I know you don't like to play politics, Shepard, but you don't really have a choice. It 'comes with the territory,' I believe you people say."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right." Shepard acquiesced. "Doesn't mean I like it though. Tali? Anything to add?"
Tali nodded. "Aside from what Garrus said, which I agree with, helping the salarians is just the right thing to do. I think we all know that you're more than a match for however many geth Saren can throw at you." Under her helmet, the quarian blushed at being so bold in her praise for the man that she had taken such a shining to.
"Thanks, Tal." Shepard said with such sincerity that it made Tali blush even more beneath her helmet. She's right, of course. Gods, is there ever a time when she's not right? That'll have to go on the list of things to think about when considering whether I'm just horny or genuinely attracted to her. Unfortunately, I have quite a few geth to kill first. "Righty-ho then. You both make good points, so I suppose my previous question about sneaking around is moot. Let's march to the sea!"
That statement garnered two confused looks from the non-humans. "Uh, Shepard? You do know that we want to move parallel to the water, right? Otherwise we'll run into one of Kirrahe's teams." Garrus said.
"Uh, duh. Of course I do. That's an expression taken from one of humanity's past wars. 300 years ago, before the creation of the Systems Alliance, one of the major nations at the time fought a civil war. One of the generals of the eventual winning side carved a path through more than 450 kilometers of enemy territory. That general, Sherman I believe his name was, believed in destroying the morale and materiel of his enemy, breaking their spirits and supply lines. He eventually continued on for another 160 kilometers or so to another major enemy city. His method of waging war was called 'total war,' and is still talked about today. Most people think it's overly 'uncivilized,' but it can be tremendously effective. Basically, that's what we're gonna do right now. We'll make our way to the facility (our 'sea') killing anything that looks like an enemy, destroying anything that could potentially be used by the enemy for any purpose, and generally doing whatever we can to make trouble for the bad guys. Get it?"
"I understand now, Shepard." Garrus said, nodding his head in tandem with Tali.
"Good. Weapons free then, ladies and gents." Shepard and company immediately opened fire upon the enemy geth, causing the death of four platforms almost immediately. Shepard would later explain that he had, of course, known that the geth he was aiming at was standing close enough to an explosive canister that Inara's HE round would cause a secondary explosion. Such statements were always met with much scoffing and many expressions of disbelief by Garrus.
"Nice landing, Joker." Shepard commented over the comms to his pilot after watching the Normandy's textbook approach to the center of the cloning facility.
"Just putting my 'meager skills' to use, Commander." Joker replied with a smirk.
"Yeah yeah. It was a joke, helmsman. One would think that with your nickname, you'd be more adept at recognizing such a thing."
"It still hurt my feelings, Shepard." The pilot pretended to pout.
"Whatever." Shepard laughed as he watched four crewmen carry the improvised explosive device out of the Normandy's belly. Following the bomb was a nervous-looking Kaidan, who had his omni-tool activated and was carefully monitoring the nuke's vital statistics. Two minutes later, the four crewmen were walking back to the ship, wiping sweat from their foreheads. Somehow I don't think that all that sweat was caused by the weight of the device. Shepard chuckled to himself. "How's it look, Kaidan?"
"Everything looks good, Commander." Alenko turned away from the bomb and looked at Shepard. "The salarians did a good job putting this together, and the controls are definitely designed for this kind of offensive strike."
"How so?" Shepard asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Activating the nuke is really easy, deactivating it is less so. In fact, if the bomb is armed for more than thirty seconds of its three minute countdown, the timer is locked in. That's the point of no return. Additionally, given that it would take you, Tali, or one of the salarians about fifteen seconds to disarm it, you have a very short window in which to reconsider your decision. In contrast, if you're rushing it it only takes about five seconds to arm the device."
"Wow. And there's no way at all to disarm the nuke once the timer reaches the thirty-second mark?" Kaidan shook his head. "Well, I guess it makes sense for this op. If the worst should happen and we all die, at least we can activate the bomb and wipe this place off the map. Thanks for taking care of the bomb, Kaidan. There's nobody I'd trust more to keep this cobbled-together p.o.s. from blowing up in our faces."
Kaidan was about to respond, when Ashley's excited voice came over the radio. "Skipper, you there?"
Shepard immediately tensed, changing into battle mode. "Yeah, Ashley. Sitrep?"
"We're being overrun, Commander! We can't hold out for much longer!"
"I read ya, Ash. We're on our way now." Shepard motioned to Garrus and Tali, who followed him towards the door that would take the team to Ashley and the salarians. He also addressed the Normandy directly. "Joker! Leave four men to help Kaidan and then get in the air. Have Wrex and Liara waiting at the bay door, though. We might need either immediate heavy support or a quick extraction from the other tower."
"Aye aye, Commander." Joker replied.
As soon as the ground team opened the massive overhead door that would eventually lead to Ashley, Kirrahe, and the salarians, Shepard saw three krogan and three geth hoppers at the other end of the chasm. The Normandy crew immediately split up, moving to three separate points of cover. All three team members pulled out their sniper rifles. Shepard sighted down on the farthest geth, Garrus took the mid-range platform, and Tali aimed for the metal frog nearest to the team. On Shepard's command, each person took a shot, and delivered crushing blows to the geth. Two flashlight heads were immediately ripped from their bodies, while the head and torso of Shepard's target was just atomized. At the sound of the shots, the three enemy krogan began moving towards the Normandy commandos.
In response to the oncoming attack, Tali switched to her shotgun, Garrus to his assault rifle, and Shepard to his pistol. Then they each picked their nearest krogan and launched an overload at their enemy's shields. With a flash of blue, the advancing krogan's shields were stripped away. In response, two of the krogan launched biotic attacks towards the Normandy squad. Shepard and Garrus both ducked behind their cover, and watched the blue spheres of energy pass overhead. As soon as the biotic blasts were no longer a danger, the two men popped back over their cover and began firing. Garrus's krogan was the first to fall, as Garrus's short yet deadly bursts of accurate AR fire turned the enemy's head into a pile of pulpy mush. Said mush shattered when the body hit the ground, a result of the snowblind ammo upgrade applied to Garrus's Spectre Gear AR.
Shepard was the next to eliminate his target, as his pistol carved out a three-inch-diameter hole in the enemy krogan's face, just below the head plate and extending all the way to the back of the armor. Ain't no regenerating that. Shepard thought grimly to himself, as he watched the edges of the hole smolder from the high heat of the pistol's inferno rounds.
The sudden unmistakable sound of a shotgun that was not Tali's HMWSG booming across the chasm brought Shepard's aim across to the last enemy. Acting on instinct, Shepard prepared a sabotage attack on his omni-tool. At the same time, he called out to Garrus. "Garrus! Damping field!" Both fighters launched their technology attacks at the same time. The charging krogan's armor crackled with green lightning, while his shotgun flashed orange and immediately started screeching its displeasure. While the krogan began switching over to a different weapon, Tali took advantage of the lull in firing to come out of cover and fire at the enemy's chest plate, once. Twice. Thrice. Four times her shotgun roared, driving straight through the enemy's armor. In fact, four shots with the HMWSG proved to be overkill from a distance of less than five meters. The sheer power of Tali's shotgun, combined with the overwhelming force of the sledgehammer rounds it was equipped with, punched clear through the krogan's front chest plate, the krogan's torso, and the rear chestplate of the armor.
"Anybody take any hits?" Shepard asked Tali and Garrus.
"Negative, Commander." Garrus responded.
"No, Shepard." Tali answered.
"Alright then. Double time!" Having said that, he collapsed his pistol and placed it back onto its hardpoint on his hip. His companions did the same with their weapons, and then the three took off at a run for the other end of the chasm.
After a frustratingly-long elevator ride that was made worse by Shepard's desire to get to his teammate and Kirrahe's team, the three commandos finally reached the level of the facility where the salarian teams were pinned down. Just as Shepard, Garrus, and Tali reached the last corner separating them from the salarians, a geth dropship soared overhead. Instantly, Ashley's voice came over the radio. "LT! Enemy incoming to your location!"
"We see it." Kaidan's terse voice answered. Mere seconds later, Kaidan spoke up again. "It doesn't look good Commander. Two dozen geth have already disembarked, and more are coming. Two of my men are already down.
Shit! There's no way Kaidan and two guys can hold off that many geth. "Hold on Kaidan! We'll be right there." Shepard turned away to head back towards the elevator.
"Negative, Commander. There's no way you could make it back here in time. I'm activating the bomb."
"Wait, Kaidan." Shepard said.
"No LT! Don't do it!" Ashley yelled.
Kaidan came back on the radio. "It's done. Go save Ashley and the salarians, Commander."
God damn it! There's nothing to be gained by going back for Kaidan, except Kaidan himself. Saving Ashley also means saving Kirrahe and his whole team. And I only have three minutes to do either. Shepard then put up a countdown on his HUD, synchronized with Kaidan's omni-tool. There's really only one choice. "We're coming to you, Ashley." With those words, Shepard ran for where the salarians were, followed closely by Garrus and Tali.
"No! Skipper, don't!" Ashley yelled out.
"The decision's made, Ash." Shepard told her. "And we need covering fire in five. Four. Three. Two." Then the three commandos burst out from behind cover, weapons blazing. "One!"
At Shepard's command, Ashley, Kirrahe, and the rest of the salarian team burst out of their covered positions and opened up with long, sustained bursts of fire. The new arrivals ran past where the salarians were dug in and smashed into the geth lines, creating a foothold in the center of the geth defenses.
"Commander! Countdown is locked, sir." Kaidan spoke up once again.
Two minutes thirty seconds left. "Die well, Kaidan. And take as many of those bastards with you as you can."
"Aye aye, sir." Shepard could practically hear Kaidan's salute. "It's been an honor, sir."
"Likewise, Lieutenant." Shepard answered somberly. And then the moment was over.
"Ash, move 'em up!" Shepard yelled out, as he and Tali popped out of cover and began systematically dismantling the geth with their shotguns. At the same time, Garrus began laying waste to the enemy with his AR. To further cover the salarians advance, Shepard activated his omni-tool. "Overloads and sabotages ASAP! As many as you can!" He began throwing out the tech attacks as quickly as he could, masterfully overclocking his omni-tool's capabilities with one hand while still laying down covering fire with his shotgun with the other. Garrus and Tali followed suit, and the salarians were able to advance all the way up to Shepard's position.
Buoyed by Shepard's arrival, as well as the successful push against the geth, the salarians began to strike down geth at a much faster rate. Within seconds, the last geth fell to the ground, deactivated.
"Alright, everybody group up." That went well. We still have 110 seconds until the bomb detonates. Shepard said, pointing to where he wanted the salarians to prepare for the Normandy's arrival. "Joker-" Before Shepard could continue, a blast of biotic energy came spiraling down from the sky, and yanked him away from his comrades. The biotic pull sent Shepard hurtling towards the edge of the tower. When the biotic energy dissipated, he plummeted towards the ground hundreds of feet below. At the last minute, he was able to grab onto the edge of the tower with one arm, saving himself. While he was falling, a series of explosions landed near Garrus, Tali, Ashley, and the salarians, forcing them away from the commander and back into cover. As Shepard struggled to pull himself up and over the edge, a low thrumming sound came up from behind him. In seconds, his left wrist was held in the tight clutches of a taloned hand. Oh thank god Garrus managed to get over here so quickly.
Shepard's momentary happiness was cut off when he saw who had picked him up. The grey carapace of Saren Arterius sneered back at the human commander as the turian hovered effortlessly in the air aboard an anti-grav platform. "Hello, Shepard."
"Saren. I'm surprised you're down here dirtying your hands with an actual fight. Didja run out of geth? I have been killing an awful lot of them lately." Okay, I really need to get free, like, now. Ninety seconds to detonation. At least he moved me back over solid ground. Of course, he's also using me as a meat shield to keep my team from firing on him. Fuck this bastard's good.
The turian's other hand came up and gripped around Shepard's throat, attempting to squeeze through the sturdy plate that protected such a vital location. Shepard's wrist was released by Saren's other hand, leaving that appendage free to gesticulate as Saren began to monologue. "What a wasted effort. No matter how well-camouflaged your diversion was, you had no chance of stopping me here. And you know you have no chance of stopping my conquest. You saw the beacon's vision on Eden Prime, Shepard; the reapers destroyed the protheans! What hope could you have of defeating them? Join me, and serve the reapers! If we submit, some of us will be spared! If we fight, we all die! Surely you can see that truth."
Oh great. Not only is this bastard fucking monologuing, but he's spouting the reaper party line. Sounds like he's been indoctrinated, just like Benezia. Sixty seconds to detonation! I need to get free, right now! With that thought, and the evaporation of any patience he may have had to listen to Saren's bullshit, Shepard sprang into action.
Faking another attempt at freeing his neck, Shepard brought his right hand up to the top of his left gauntlet. Pretending to scrabble hopelessly, he managed to get ahold of one of his throwing knives. With the practiced ease borne of thousands of repetitions, the knife was withdrawn from its sheath and spun around into a classic "ice-pick" grip. Straightening his arm, he attempted to drive the knife straight through Saren's right eye and into the turian's brain. This could be it! I might be able to end this fight for good, right now!
Unfortunately for the commander, Saren had been the Council's most accomplished Spectre for reasons that went above and beyond Sparatus's blatant favoritism. Moving with almost preternatural speed, the turian yanked his head back and to the right, attempting to use the angle of Shepard's attack to get out of range of the edged weapon.
Though its origins were in schoolboy jibes, Shepard's nickname of "Spike" was well-earned through hours of practice and plenty of fights (for both practice and survival) with knives. His intimate knowledge of fighting with blades allowed him to adjust his aim just enough to still strike his enemy, although it was no longer the mortal blow Shepard had hoped for.
Instead the black blade, coated with titanium carbon nitride to keep it sharp enough to split a hair, penetrated Saren's left eye at a 35-degree angle and drove straight through the gelatinous organ and out through the turian's temple. With a tremendous cry of pain, Saren immediately released the commander and dropped out of sight. He quickly reappeared, flying away at top speed while the sharpened edge of the blade stuck out from the side of the his head and twinkled in the sunlight through its coating of dark blue blood and lighter blue vitreous gel.
Garrus, Tali, Ashley, Kirrahe, and the rest of the surviving salarians were running towards Shepard, who was still on his knees panting for breath. Shit. Note to self, turian's have some serious fucking grip strength. Try to keep their talons away from anything you don't want crushed. Like your fucking neck. Or your balls. With an internal grimace at that last thought, Shepard stood up and looked towards the arriving Normandy.
"Everybody aboard!" Shepard shouted, and pointed towards the ship. Shit. Forty seconds left. Run, damn it, run! The human charged up the ramp and into the ship immediately on the heels of Kirrahe. Thirty seconds left! Come on Joker! "Move it now, Joker!"
"Going!" The pilot yelled back, as he flipped the Normandy straight up and pushed the ship through the atmosphere as fast as he could. "Hold on!" Joker yelled as he begged for the ship to give him everything she had.
Shepard grabbed onto the bulkhead and watched the timer tick down. Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one. Unseen to anyone on board, a huge flare of light lit up what was once a krogan cloning facility, and a massive shockwave chased after the escaping ship. Shepard felt the Normandy shift around a little as the pillar of force caught up to her, just before the ship broke free from the atmosphere. I guess that's it then. You went out with quite the blaze of glory, Kaidan. I'll get that sonuvabitch for you, I promise. I got a piece of him already. Didn't get the kill, but if I have to carve off bits and pieces one at a time, I will. Fuck. Losing a teammate never gets any easier, does it? Weighted down with that thought, Shepard bowed his head and sent forth a prayer for his fallen comrade.Gus am bris an la agus an teich na sgailean, my friend.
Author's Note: "Gus am bris an la agus an teich na sgailean" is a Scottish Gaelic saying from the Song of Solomon. It essentially translates to "Until the day breaks and the shadows flee;" and is used similarly to R.I.P. ("Rest in Peace" or "Requiescat in Pace"). Just in case you didn't want to look it up yourself.